TOWARD NEW STRENGTH FOR WORKERS
Mazzocchi, Anthony
Toward New Strength for Workers BY ANTHONY MAZZOCCHI The goal of all our efforts now should be to restore an equitable balance of power between capital and labor—to make it possible for working...
...These principles remain valid today...
...But the changed circumstances of American workers require new approaches to their implementation: ¶ A superfund for workers...
...We must create a national health-insurance program, modeled on the Canadian system, that abolishes all other third-party payers and gives responsible local, state, and national boards the power to set reasonable prices for health care and to ensure to all Americans fair access and treatment of quality...
...A labor party...
...Ever since its founding, the trade-union movement has been guided by two cardinal principles: (1) to guarantee adequate wages and benefits to all workers, and (2) to organize workers to negotiate for themselves from a position of strength...
...This callous disregard for fellow citizens must stop...
...Neither should private insurance companies be allowed to continue to earn large sums of money from our outrageously inefficient and badly organized health-care system...
...Every year, millions lose their jobs because of unilateral decisions of corporate managers who feel no responsibility for the lives of their employees once they've decided to terminate them...
...And the truth is that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans represent the real interests of American working people...
...Pragmatism is the waffle of American politics...
...People's health should not be held hostage to the vagaries of corporate employment policies...
...Initially, such a party need not run candidates of its own...
...To accomplish these objectives, working people also need a new political instrument, based in the trade-union movement and answerable to a dues-paying membership of workers and their families, which can negotiate directly with the state about the terms and conditions of their employment...
...It would be enough—as the environmental and women's movements have done—to change the political cadence in this country by offering proposals for specific but far-reaching reform...
...Anthony Mazzocchi is secretary-treasurer of the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers Union...
...Toward New Strength for Workers BY ANTHONY MAZZOCCHI The goal of all our efforts now should be to restore an equitable balance of power between capital and labor—to make it possible for working people once again to earn a decent living without having to work killing hours in dangerous jobs, to have time for family life and fulfilling leisure-time activities, to restore diminished opportunities to participate in the political life of the nation as active, concerned, and informed citizens...
...National health insurance...
...All workers should be eligible for continuing pay and benefits if they are laid off, for whatever reason, and are willing to enroll in an accredited educational institution of their choice and make satisfactory and continuing progress toward a degree—and, ultimately, a new job...
...What politics needs is a little truth-telling...
Vol. 54 • November 1990 • No. 11
